


Mellifluous Falsehoods

by PhantomSnakeInNeedOfWarmth



Series: The Galaxy Has It's Eyes On You [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: AKA Mentioned Rebels, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Darth Vader Needs a Hug, Darth Vader Redemption, Gen, Jedi Council Praise From The Last Person You Would Expect To Hear It From, Kinda?, LITERALLY, Look I can barely write, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Mentioned Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Mentioned Rebellions, Not As Dark As You Believe It To Be, Not the type you like tho, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious Being an Asshole, This Fic Has Better Vocabulary Than Me, Vader Does What He Wants, Vader Makes A Cameo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27263242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomSnakeInNeedOfWarmth/pseuds/PhantomSnakeInNeedOfWarmth
Summary: The fear, which followed Vader like a shadow, was an illusion. Another mask to add to the grotesque image.It was a semblance easily broken by the shrewd and the persistent. Fortunately, the galaxy didn't have many of those individuals.Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith, was thankful for the small mercies that came with the ignorance of the rich and the stuck-up.After all, the fate of his Empire relied on the illusion weaved around his apprentice.
Relationships: Darth Maul & Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Darth Sidious & Darth Vader, Dooku | Darth Tyranus & Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious & Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious & Darth Vader
Series: The Galaxy Has It's Eyes On You [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969903
Comments: 8
Kudos: 75





	Mellifluous Falsehoods

**Author's Note:**

> Hi again!  
> If you are here after reading the first fic in the series, you might already know that this won't be a direct continuation of the other fic.  
> The series is AU-connected stories you will read from different perspectives.  
> If you want, you can read them separately from the series, and you will still be able to enjoy the story.  
> 

Darth Sidious, Emperor of the Galactic Empire, could only stare at the lifeless figure in his feet in mute anger.

The man, his spy, was still alive. Barely breathing, but alive.

At least _for now_.

As useful as he had been, the incompetence he had shown on his mission was his death-warrant approved and signed.

Sidious couldn't understand what he had done wrong.

His mastery of the Force had no true competition. His teaching methods could be improved, but he didn't believe they were that injudicious.

Maul had been more of an assassin, than a real apprentice, but he had been useful in his own way. Not that he had been able to accomplish his first and only real mission, but still. Maul had been a failure, albeit a useful one.

Even if he _did_ prove to be quite a nuisance to his Grand Plan.

Tyranus had been a tough nut to crack, but the Dark Lord still succeeded. Dooku's strong values and ideas had been one major setback, but Darth Sidious was anything but persistent. The irony in Dooku's turning didn't escape the then-Chancellor and he took great pleasure in reminding himself of that accomplishment.

As an apprentice, the former Jedi was as much of a tool to him as Maul was, if not more.

While Dooku's morals would have normally been something quite admirable, Sidious didn't need a morally high apprentice. It took him years but the Dark Lord was a master manipulator - no task was impossible if he took it upon himself to complete it. The Count had been very useful, once broken out of the Jedi dogma. Bringing the Republic to the edge of ruin and even more importantly, bringing young Skywalker closer to the Edge.

In that, he helped Sidious get his one true apprentice and ultimately signed his own death.

Anakin, now Vader, was a more complicated story.

In theory, after all Vader had done, he shouldn't have any morals left. His values had already been Sith-like enough.

He shouldn't have been such a disappointment.

And yet, Vader was.

He had compassion. He showed mercy. He had some bizarre code he followed.

This had been the seventeenth spy Sidious had to dispose of, upon return from a certain flagship.

If that continued his spy network would consist only of his trusted Moffs and a few dark siders he had started training.

Unsatisfactory if you asked him, but necessary as Vader was his main concern at the moment.

Given orders, Vader did go and execute them. _How,_ was another matter.

His apprentice was every bit of maverick as had been the **_Jedi_ **before him.

For an instance, the first task given to Vader had been to apprehend the rising resistance on a small Mid Rim world - a world that would normally be ignored by any major forces, but in that case, was in utmost importance for the Empire's future exploits. Such as the many Imperial battle cruisers and the currently constructed Death Star.

With a newly assembled fleet, Darth Vader departed from Imperial Center at 0500 hours with orders to destroy the feeble rebellion as swiftly as possible.

Sidious had specifically chosen that mission in particular as Vader's first, desiring to paint his apprentice in lethal and merciless light as soon as possible.

The Emperor needed to show the strength of his Empire, to show what will happen to those who _dare_ oppose him and his rule.

So there Vader went, on a week-long mission.

The cyborg didn't return for another two months.

Sidious had been so close to losing control over his anger - his spy had died two weeks into the mission and after that, he had been completely cut off from any news.

No one had responded to any of his summons, comms or correspondences.

And when his apprentice had finally returned, all Sidious received as a report had been "I destroyed the usurpers. The resistance would no longer be a problem."

True, Sidious had accepted that - it was exactly what he wanted. The Imperial presence had been re-established and a new Moff would soon be assigned.

Two days after Vader's return, Sidious had received a complaint from the newly minted Moff.

In _that_ report were mentioned several alarming things, such as the reduced power of the Imperial governor, the new reforms to the system in power and the change in leadership.

When these news had finally sunk in, his throne room had been in need of renovation.

The problem wasn't that it happened once.

The Emperor could only wish it had been an isolated incident.

Every mission, every campaign, every treaty he sent his apprentice to oversee or lead, was completed in such unorthodox fashion that made him think of blonde curls and mischievous sky-blue eyes.

It has to be noted that Vader did complete his missions with various outcomes - outcomes, many of which displeased and angered Sidious, but hadn't caused immense problems for his plans or the Empire as a whole.

The only thing that suffered was Vader's own reputation.

Something that Sidious couldn't do much about except to start hundreds upon thousands of rumors, painting his apprentice in the most horrid light.

In some he was a monster, demon risen from the depths of the ninth Corellian hell, ready to tear apart everyone who dare oppose his master or the Empire.

In others, he was a brutal tactician, who didn't care how much troops and firepower he sacrificed as long as nothing escaped his iron grasp.

The fact that Vader punished every grave failure with a death sentence was only causing the rumors to spread faster.

Of course, they never reached the Mid and Outer Rim, where Vader's missions normally took him.

Those horror stories never reached the far ends of the galaxy, where his apprentice had fought, bled, sacrificed and _won_.

But the Core and Inner Rim were transfixed, horrified by the dark monolith.

They had heard of his rage, of his cold presence, of the massacres he had committed.

They later told those cautionary tales to their associates, to their allies.

Warning them about the beast in humanoid form.

Darth Vader was feared, he inspired pure fright. And for that Sidious could only congratulate himself.

He couldn't stop Vader in his pursuit of peace.

And believe him, he _tried_.

Sidious spend hours briefing his apprentice, giving Vader a detailed explanation of the situation while omitting some facts he deemed his apprentice unworthy of knowing.

The Dark Lord explicitly told the cyborg what his orders were and how they should be executed.

And nevertheless, Vader always returned with results that only suited his own moral compass.

It needs to be noted that every one of Vader's transgressions was punished severely not only by the infamous Imperial interrogator-droids but by the Emperor himself.

And yet the fear of pain didn't stop that innate behavior.

Maybe Sidious should have given Vader treatment after that fateful battle on Mustafar.

At least _then_ , the cyborg might have been able to appreciate his teachings.

Unfortunately, the time for that had passed, leaving Sidious with a semi-controllable apprentice and a growing fury.

Alongside the rage he felt towards Vader's predicament, another feeling was growing inside him.

A feeling he had not felt since before his own apprenticeship.

 _Sympathy_.

Such emotion was a sign of weakness.

A weakness a Sith Lord shouldn't possess.

But Sidious did.

A fact that infuriated him greatly.

The dark satisfaction he felt when thinking about the demise of the Jedi, had now a bitter edge to it. The bottomless hatred he had for them hadn't lessened, if not, it had only grown.

The sympathy he felt for them, the Jedi Council, in particular, wasn't connected to their fate, nor was it for the knowledge lost alongside them.

Once again it was all linked to his wayward apprentice and what followed him.

Vader had been a part of the Jedi Order for more than a decade.

A decade in which the Jedi Council had had to deal with every disobedience, that followed Anakin Skywalker as if it were the boy's own shadow.

Then, Sidious had supported every little act of rebellion, seeing it as a sign that Anakin was fated to be his.

He hadn't known the trait would continue to be a nuisance when Vader finally broke out of the Jedi dogma.

The fact that the number of Fallen among the Jedi Council was close to zero was phenomenal. The Jedi had been far more serene than he thought was possible for a living creature to be.

And they had endured it for more than a decade!

He certainly didn't have the patience. It was a pity that such a useful tool had to be discarded, but Sidious didn't have the forbearance to deal with Vader. He didn't need to be a military genius to know that having an unknown variable, an uncontrollable wildcard at your disposal was useful only to a certain extent.

The Emperor didn't need to know _if_ Vader's actions would blow up his carefully laid plans, but _when_.

That was unless his apprentice was found unfortunately slaughtered by some of Sidious' nemeses.

Any obligation, he might have felt towards the hard work he had put in Vader's creation, was thrown out of the window when a report apprised him about the almost complete demise of his spy network.

At first, he tried the subtle way. After all, what would the PR teams do if the media gets a gist of the fact that the Emperor himself murdered Darth Vader, his second in command and Imperial poster boy. No, he had to do it inconspicuously, with as little leads leading back to him as possible.

 _That_ was the reason why Sidious started sending Vader on dangerous missions on even more dangerous planets with less and less backup. He tried damaging the suit in small ways to incapacitate or cripple the cyborg in a crucial moment.

He even gifted Vader two incredibly hazardous planets for home bases, planets with so little safety protocols that they would normally be considered inhabitable. But even that didn't stop his tenacious apprentice, if not, it only encouraged him to do better.

Hence why several bounty hunters had been contacted from different identities and channels, having been hired to eliminate Darth Vader. Extermination that would be paid so well, the person who finished the job would be able to afford himself a moon and still have enough credits to sustain themselves for a lifetime.

But when every one of them failed spectacularly, their lives ended in a flash of a 'saber or an explosion, Sidious abounded all of his insidious methods and in desperation send every Dark Side user or creature he currently had under his thumb.

What was left of him to do was wait and hope that the days of him being Vader's Master were counted.

**Author's Note:**

> Two updates in the same month?! The world is ending! ... Wait, we already know that.  
>   
> Anyway, I'm so happy that I finished this work. The idea of a sympathizing Sidious was the whole inspiration for this whole series. So thank you, Palpy for being such a pain in the ass.
> 
> If you didn't fully understand why Sidious destroyed his throne room, here is the explanation: Vader did get rid of the resistance. He just did it in his own unorthodox fashion - he sided with the rioting people after learning about their goals and intentions, helped them overthrow the current leadership, and so he successfully destroyed the group _calling_ themselves the resistance. Then he stayed there and helped with the logistics until he could be sure everything will go smoothly. Sidious was tricked by his loophole-using apprentice, a loophole that reduced Sidious' influence there. So what followed that relevation was a total meltdown. 
> 
> No, I didn't intentionally compare Sidious to a three years old youngling. The younglings have much more solid control than him.
> 
> If you liked this fic, don't hesitate to leave kudos and comment. I'm always open to constructive criticism.


End file.
